Annotation:Castle of Dromore: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:23, 1 April 2012

CASTLE OF DROMORE, THE. AKA and see "My Wife is Sick and Like to Die, Oh Dear What Shall I Do," "October Winds." Scottish, Irish; Air (6/8 time, "with feeling"). D Major. Standard tuning. AB. The words below are from an 18th century song, rewritten by Sir Harold Boulton (1859-1935), an English baronet who arranged and edited several song collections and adapted some Irish and Scotch folk songs (see also "Skye boat song"). Boulton also wrote "The Loch Tay Boat Song."

October winds lament around the castle of Dromore.
Yet peace is in its lofty halls, a phaisde ban a stor,
Though autumn winds may droop and die, a bud of spring are you,
(Sing hush-a-bye, lul, lul, lo, lan, sing hush-a-bye, lul, lul, loo. )

Bring no ill will to hinder us, my helpless babe and me,
Dread spirits of the Blackwater, Clann Eoghain's wild banshee;
And holy Mary pitying us in Heaven for grace doth sue.

Take time to thrive, my ray of hope, in the garden of Dromore;
Take heed, young eaglet, till thy wings are fairer fit to soar.
A little rest, and then the world is full of work to do.

The song was recorded by the Scottish group the Corries, and proved a popular version. Ted Hastings points out that the Scottish version refers to "Drumore," near Campbeltown, in Argyll, while the Irish version refers to "Dromore," located in Co. Down, only a few miles away across the Irish Sea. He suspects the names have a common origin.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Graves (The Irish Song Book), 1895. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 52, p. 9. Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; No. 509, p. 129 (appears as "My Wife is Sick").

Recorded sources: Claddagh CC11, Leo Rowsome - "The Drones and Chanters" (1966) See also listings at Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index [1], Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [2].

Tune properties and standard notation